Page 39 of Stars Shine In Your Eyes

“When did you get that? I’ve been with you all day.”

“I called in a delivery, figuring we might be too tired and too busy to go to the market.”

She looked at him. Surely he hadn’t thought…?

Obviously reading her mind, he laughed. “No, I didn’t predict we’d be busy in this way. I just thought we might be busy with the cottages.”

Phew. She wouldn’t want him to have seen her as a sure thing. Although, would it really have been a bad thing if he had? After all, it wasn’t like she hadn’t had more pleasure than she could ever have imagined.

He took a seat on the chaise longue with the thick cushions that she’d sat on by herself the previous night. “Come sit with me,” he said.

She picked up the wineglasses and walked over from the railing, where she’d been standing looking out into the night. The moon wasn’t full, giving just enough light for her to be able to make her way to him. But that was just as well, because she might’ve been nervous about being naked with him here had there been a fuller moon.

When she got close enough, he opened up his blanket and spread his legs. “Sit between my legs,” he suggested.

Oh, it was already even naughtier. That hadn’t taken long.

She did as he suggested, moving the blanket around to the front so that they were skin to skin. She settled against him, loving the heat of his body against hers, the hardness of his muscles against her softer skin.

“You feel so good,” he said in a low voice, pressing a kiss to the side of her neck.

That might’ve been the beginning of more lovemaking had her stomach not growled right at that moment. They both laughed.

“Okay, I get it. Food first,” he said.

He loaded a freshly cut slice of French bread with cheese and prosciutto, feeding it to her. Food had never tasted better. It had never been fresher. And she’d never felt more alive, head to toe, inside and out.

When she’d finished it, she gave in to the urge to lick his fingers clean. Not just stopping at that, but sucking them inside her mouth, laving his fingertips with her tongue. She turned her face to the side so that he could steal a kiss, one she very much wanted to give him. And then she fed him. He seemed ravenous, wolfing the food down. Or maybe it was simply that he wanted to get the eating over and done with so that they could move on to other pursuits.

They ate and drank like that until the platter was nearly empty and their glasses were too. And then he was running his hands over her, from her collarbones down over the sides of her breasts and her waist and down to her hips and down her thighs, then he ran them in the opposite direction, warming her skin at the same time that goose bumps rose across every inch that he touched.

“Do you like this? When I touch you like this?” he asked.

“I love it.” Her words seemed to incite him to touch her even more intimately, his hands cupping and caressing her breasts. Learning every inch of her, what made her squirm with pleasure, what made her gasp, what made her moan, and then he was moving one hand farther down, down over her stomach, into the aching flesh between her legs.

She closed her eyes, her head going back against his shoulder, her cheek against his. As he touched her, finding her wet and hot, all for him, her legs fell open naturally to give him better access to her. To her pleasure. Soon, she couldn’t stop her hips from moving up against his hand. Wanting. Demanding. Needing more. And he gave it to her. Everything she needed. Everything she desired.

He moved inside of her first with one finger and then two, bringing her so much pleasure. So much that, before she was even aware she was that close to the peak, she cried out, her body trembling against his as he took her over the edge and then beyond. And beyond some more, to even farther reaches of bliss. But it wasn’t enough. Nothing would be enough until he was inside of her again. Thankfully, he felt the same way, because she heard the tearing of a condom wrapper, and she shifted her languid body just enough that he could put on protection.

She was about to turn to face him when he whispered in her ear, “No, like this. Just like this.”

He put his hands on her hips and shifted them, shifting her, lifting her so that she was over him and able to take him inside. Oh, this was wicked. Beautifully, perfectly wicked with both of them covered by the blankets as she rode him, her back to his front, his hands on her hips, moving her, directing her for both their pleasure. The greatest pleasure anyone had ever known. Surely, there was nothing better than this.

She gazed up at the midnight sky above, inky black with a few stars twinkling as if just for them. With his heart beating against her back and her name on his lips, they both came apart at the same moment. One body, it seemed. One heartbeat. He turned her face as she was about to cry out and captured her cry with his kiss. A deep, passionate kiss that only bonded them further.

In that moment, he was everything.

Everything she’d ever wanted.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Malcolm woke the next morning to find Josie standing beside the bed, holding a mug of coffee. “We need to go soon, or we’re going to be late to meet Mari at the bookshop to brief her on our progress.”

He took the mug and put it on the side table, and then he took her hands in his and pulled her onto the bed. “Not so fast.” Then gave her a proper good-morning kiss, the way she should have woken up in the first place. He thought he might’ve convinced her when sixty seconds later, she was kissing him back just as passionately.

But then she withdrew, pushing back up to standing. “Seriously, we really should get going in a few minutes.”

He sat up in bed, the covers falling to reveal his bare chest and pool around his hips. “Is everything okay? You’re not regretting last night, are you?”

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